Lulu Sun booked her place in the last eight with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Cody Wong. — Photo by Teo Chi Wei
KUCHING: More seeded players exited the 31st Sarawak Chief Minister’s Cup (I) ITF Junior Tennis Championship (Grade 1) at the SLTA Tennis Centre yesterday as the top two seeds of the girls singles Sato Naho of Japan and Lulu Sun of Switzerland sailed into the last eight of the competition.
Naho saw off the challenge from 14th seed Mai Napatt Nirundorn of Thailand 6-4, 6-0 while Lulu made short work of her opponent from Hong Kong, Cody Wong Hong Yi 6-2, 6-1.
Joining them in the quarterfinals are fourth seed Zheng Qinwen of China and fifth seed Yuki Naito who beat Kristyna Lavickova of Czech Republic 7-5, 6-2 and Punnin Kovapitukted of Thailand 6-1, 6-3 respectively.
Other players who booked their places in the last eight were eighth seed Park Sohyun of South Korea, Daria Snigur of Ukraine, Anri Nakata of Japan and American Skyler Marie Grace Grishuk.
In the girls doubles, sixth seeds Adrienne Nagy (Hungary) and Yuki Naito (Japan) are into the quarterfinals after defeating Joleta Budiman (Indonesia) and Shrivalli Rashmikaa Bhamidipaty (India) 7-5, 6-2 and they are joined by eighth seeds Karolina Berankova (Czech Republic) and Melis Yasar (Sweden) who beat the combined pair of Chiara Di Tommaso (Australia) and Carol Lee Young Suh (South Korea) 6-3,6-2.
The boys singles competition saw unseeded Japanese challenger Shunsuke Mitsui checking into the last eight after the tournament second seed Ray Ho of Taiwan retired in the second set after trailing the former 4-6, 0-4.
Yanki Erel of Turkey, the top seed, had suffered the same fate on Wednesday, losing to Great Britain’s Connor Thomson.
Czech Republic’s Dalibor Svrcina, the third seed, is the highest seeded player left in the competition and he will next meet 12th seed Dane Sweeny of Australia after disposing of Hong Kong’s Ng Ki Lung 6-2, 6-2.
Other quarterfinalists include fifth seed Rinky Hijikata of Japan, sixth seed Jonas Forejtek of Czech Republic, Jack Draper of Great Britain, Han Seon Yong of South Korea and eighth seed Mo Ye Cong of China.
Meanwhile, Jack Draper and Henri Squire were given a walkover win in the second round of the boys doubles after Taiwan’s Ray Ho was unfit to play with his partner from Vietnam Nguyen Phuong Van due to injury.